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At this point, it's common knowledge that the secret to success is daily routine.

The outcomes of your life are not governed by influxes of energy. Your future trajectory is not going to be significantly altered by what you do once or twice (that's the good thing about mistakes, if you learn from them, they don't define you).

However, what you do repeatedly is what will create the quality of your life. What you do each day is what will become your fate. That's why there's so much interest and talk about the daily routines — particularly morning routines — of highly successful people. Sure, they often have a few key things in common, like waking up early, exercising, or only checking email once or twice a day.

However, everyone is different, and everyone's needs are unique. That's why it's so important to understand how successful people approach building their routines, as opposed to the very specific details of what they do or don't accomplish. Here, a debriefer.

Successful people understand that their energy each day is limited. That's why they condition themselves over time to wake up and instead of surveying their day and deciding what to do (for example: should I exercise in the morning?) they stick to the same thing over and over again. This allows them to enter a state of flow, and to wake up and just start acting as opposed to waiting, thinking, questioning and trying to muster up motivation.

Eliminate small decision-making.

You've probably read a lot about CEOs that wear the same clothes every day, or who have eaten the same breakfast for the last 15 years. This isn't because they're boring people, it's because they understand that small, almost undetectable decision-making is what will rob you of the majority of your morning energy. When you have to constantly think through what you want to wear, eat, do, say and be, you exhaust yourself.

It is, in a sense, a paradox of choice. The more options we're given, the less happier — and productive — we are.

Prioritize values.

Success looks different for everyone. But what's consistent is that successful people prioritize their values and principles. If what you value is health, you should be incorporating an exercise routine and healthy meal into your AM schedule. If what you value is family, you should be taking a few minutes to have breakfast with your kids before you leave. If what you value is productivity, you should wake up and tackle the first tasks of the day before anything else. Successful people design their lives in accordance with what they care about.

Eliminate microdistractions.

Push notifications, unnecessary meetings and phone calls, online shopping, videos, articles social media... all of it is just one tab or ding! away, but altogether, microdistractions probably take you away from hours of work each day. If you get to the end of each day and feel as though you accomplished very little and can't figure out "where the time went," microdistractions are likely the culprit.

Temporary discomfort < long-term reward.

Living the life of your dreams is not going to be doing what makes you most comfortable all of the time. In fact, it's often doing what's challenging and rewarding that brings people the most joy. Successful people understand this, and they are willing to withstand the temporary discomfort of putting themselves out there, trying something new, doing physical activity, etc., in exchange for the long-term reward of a large network, a new project, or health.

"What would be the most productive use of my time today?"

Though successful people are often pretty stringent about their personal routines, there's always room to reprioritize if need be. Ultimately, what it comes down to is that each day, successful people use their time in the most productive and efficient way possible. To mimic this, wake up and ask yourself what would be the best way for you to spend the day — what you would like to enter the evening having accomplished. Do this every day, and you'll find yourself farther than you ever thought possible.